Orchard House Family Assessment Centre

Inspection report for residential family centre: Orchard House Family Assessment Centre 1 Orchard House Family Assessment Centre Orchard House Family Assessment Centre Limited Orchard House, Fons George, Taunton, Somerset TA1 3JS Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this residential family centre

This is a residential family centre for up to seven families, who are referred for assessment to the centre via the courts or local authority children’s services. Families have their own bedrooms and they share communal areas, such as the kitchen and lounge. The organisation has invested in a separate building with offices and a well- equipped playroom so that families can attend assessment and specialist sessions away from their living environment.

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Information about this residential family centre

The centre enables children to live safely with their family while care from their parents or carers is assessed. The centre provides evidence-based assessments, which will enable informed decisions to be made about whether or not it would be in the child’s best interests to remain in the permanent care of their parents or carers. The centre’s multidisciplinary team liaises and works with local agencies and services to provide support to meet the identified needs of families.

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Information about this residential family centre

There is a suitably experienced and qualified registered manager in post.

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Information about this residential family centre

Seven families were living and being assessed at the centre at the time of the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and parents, taking into account outstanding

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Overall experiences and progress of

How well children and parents are helped and protected outstanding

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Overall experiences and progress of

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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Overall experiences and progress of

The residential family centre provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the residential family centre contribute Inspection report for residential family centre: Orchard House Family Assessment Centre 2 to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and parents.

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Overall experiences and progress of

Date of last inspection: 8 November 2022

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Overall experiences and progress of

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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Overall experiences and progress of

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for residential family centre: Orchard House Family Assessment Centre 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

Parents and children are supported by highly skilled and attuned staff. The support given to parents to help them learn how to care for their children safely is comprehensive and evidence based. Staff use attachment-based interventions which help build positive relationships and help families to settle quickly. Parents repeatedly describe staff as ‘lovely’, ‘friendly’ and ‘helpful’, and this helps parents feel able to speak to staff and to seek help and support when needed. When talking about the staff, one parent said that ‘They gave all the help I needed, I wasn’t afraid to ask for anything.’ Another parent said that the support provided by staff ‘made me a better parent’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

Exceptionally high quality interventions are provided to parents by staff. The importance of attachment to the relational work with parents is highly valued throughout the organisation. Leaders and managers have gone above and beyond to ensure that evidence-based models are thoroughly understood and embedded into staff’s daily practice. These well-planned interventions for parents help build self- esteem and confidence, which increases parenting skills and therefore the skills to keep their children safe.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

Staff demonstrate strong expertise in working with parents who may have more complex support needs. The assessment and specialist attachment interventions for one parent and their child demonstrated outstanding practice and the approach adopted is worthy of wider dissemination. A professional commented: ‘They have adapted the way they used the assessment and have done therapeutic work… and how they have done this, non-blaming and non-shaming is amazing.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

Highly individualised assessments are undertaken by extremely skilled and experienced staff. Parents’ views are routinely sought and considered as part of the assessment process and this feedback is used to make changes to improve their experiences. Staff constantly adapt their practice in response to parents’ needs to ensure that families have a fair assessment. Leaders and managers have developed systems alongside the assessment process which support parents to gain the parenting skills and knowledge to safely care for their children. Targeted actions are identified to ensure that parents know what areas need additional attention. This helps to keep assessments focused and specific to each family.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

Skilled interventions provide parents with emotional containment and time to reflect with trusted staff. When talking to parents about the outcome of their assessments, staff focus on the child’s needs but also recognise the needs of the parent. Assessment reports are comprehensive and evidence based, describing parents’ strengths and vulnerabilities and their capacity for change, with clear recommendations. Inspection report for residential family centre: Orchard House Family Assessment Centre 4 Staff recognise the importance of children understanding their past. When families move on from the centre, parents and children are provided with personalised books that capture many positive memories about their time at the centre. The books are sensitively worded to ensure that the child’s time in the centre and any decisions made are accurately represented, further supporting the child’s understanding of

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

Families are welcomed into the centre and expectations are clearly explained to parents on or shortly after arrival. Families are given opportunities to talk with staff and visit before they arrive. They are provided with a welcome guide which is informative and clearly written, which helps them to understand what to expect during their stay. A separate children’s guide is available which uses child-friendly words and pictures.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: outstanding

Leaders and managers ensure that there is a robust and timely response to all safeguarding concerns and incidents. Children’s safety is central to practice and the assessment process. Attentive staff ensure high levels of vigilance to ensure incidents are responded to swiftly and any concerns are managed to avoid escalation or harm to the child. Staff are confident to intervene when necessary to ensure that children are kept safe. A professional commented: ‘Safeguarding has been at the forefront of everything they do,’ and a member of staff said: ‘There is a real and fundamental ethos of safeguarding the child above all else, at all times.’

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: outstanding

Interventions are tailored to meet specific risks and there is a strong focus on the link between risk, harm and attachment. Risks are well understood and staff ensure that the right support is provided to parents to help them to understand and reduce risks to keep their children safe. Reports and assessments are focused on the child’s lived experience of harm and risk of potential harm.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: outstanding

Systems used to manage risk are comprehensive, with effective management oversight. Planning documents provide clear information about the family’s history that includes both strengths and concerns. Leaders and managers have developed a clear, usable system for sharing relevant updates across the staff team. This ensures that important information about progress, assessment and risk is easily accessible.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: outstanding

Responses of leaders and managers to complaints have been exceptional. There is a highly developed understanding of the complexities for parents of undergoing a parenting assessment and having their voices heard. Leaders and managers have taken time to understand each parent’s views and thoroughly investigated each complaint, including any learning. One example of learning from a complaint has resulted in practice changing across the organisation and a new process being implemented. The new process is evidence based, parent and child focused and an outstanding example of good practice. Inspection report for residential family centre: Orchard House Family Assessment Centre 5 Staff are clear about promoting the privacy and dignity of parents while maintaining their safeguarding responsibilities. There is good communication between the staff team to ensure that each member of staff has the most up-to-date information

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: outstanding

Monitoring and surveillance systems have been upgraded and are in place throughout the centre. Each family has an agreed plan with consent for the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) and surveillance, and families are helped to understand how and why it is used.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: outstanding

Medication arrangements are safe and a new process has been developed to ensure consistency. Staff’s knowledge about medication is strong and there have been no medication errors reported since the previous inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The centre is managed by an aspirational and highly experienced registered manager who has dedicated their professional career to this specialist area of practice. Leaders and managers are ambitious about the continued development of the centre and have an excellent understanding of strengths and areas for improvement. The centre benefits from the experience of senior leaders and managers who have been with the organisation for over 15 years.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The centre is staffed by a committed and dedicated staff team whose members enjoy their work. Staff said that they feel ‘privileged’ to work at the centre and feel supported, valued and listened to by managers. Some staff spoke about feeling unsettled after some changes were made but continued to feel supported and heard by managers. For example, staff said: ‘I know I am feeling listened to and that we have started to come out of the other side of this,’ ‘I am proud to work here and be part of this team,’ and ‘Orchard House is a very special place, and I am proud to be a part of a company that values both its employees and the families it serves.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

High-quality assessments are completed by a team of experienced staff, including clinical psychologists and qualified social workers. The comprehensive assessment process is underpinned by skilled family support workers who complete direct work with families and compile detailed recordings of their parenting through observations. The manager holds regular and in-depth case discussions with all involved workers to ensure that individual contributions are explored and included in the final assessment. This ensures a thorough and fair assessment for families.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers understand the importance of the team around the child and developing positive relationships with other professionals. This helps families to receive a coordinated approach to their assessment. Professional feedback is positive. One professional commented: ‘The communication is excellent, I cannot fault it.’ Inspection report for residential family centre: Orchard House Family Assessment Centre 6 The home environment is maintained to exceptionally high standards and any maintenance or redecoration needed is rectified promptly. Leaders and managers have an extensive programme of investment for continued renovations in the home. Parents have said that they have all of the equipment they need and that the accommodation meets their needs. When the centre is at full capacity, some parents have said that the kitchen can be crowded. Leaders and managers have taken action by creating extra space for food storage and bottle preparation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers have extremely effective processes in place to continually monitor and evaluate practice and the functioning of the centre. They demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of legislation and regulations and the relevance to the families they work with. This ensures that families receive high-quality interventions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Exceptionally high quality team meetings and development sessions take place regularly and are a space for the team to reflect and improve their practice. These sessions are evidence based and incorporate topics such as attachment and emotional regulation. Staff benefit from the expertise of professionals and are supported to link the content to the families they work with. This helps staff to embed the learning and provide high-quality, evidence-based interventions to families.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

All staff complete mandatory training and have access to a range of additional training that can support them to meet the needs of the families. There are effective systems in place to monitor training and identify any gaps.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Supervision sessions take place regularly and most are detailed, with excellent levels of reflection and learning from practice. The registered manager does not have supervisory oversight of all parts of the service due to the size of the organisation. However, more could be done to consider how to implement this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

No requirements or recommendations were made at this inspection.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and parents, using the social care common inspection framework. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with The Residential Family Centre Regulations 2002 and the national minimum standards. Inspection report for residential family centre: Orchard House Family Assessment Centre 7

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Residential family centre details

Registered provider: Orchard House Family Assessment Centre Limited

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Residential family centre details

Registered provider address: The Lodge, 60 Staplegrove Road, Taunton, Somerset TA1 1DJ

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Residential family centre details

Email address: info@orchardhousefac.co.uk

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Inspector

Stacey Pellow, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for residential family centre: Orchard House Family Assessment Centre 8 to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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